Strawberry Fields Triathlon

Race- Strawberry Fields Triathlon
Distance - Olympic
Date- July 17th, 2011


Pre-race-- had my usual breakfast, and met teammates to head down to the race. Arrived, and set up on rack at end closest to swim finish and run out. Walked down to swim start area, got in and swam around for a few minutes before we were ordered out of the water. This year I was in the 2nd of the Olympic distance waves, last year I was in the last wave. I appreciate it when race directors alternate waves on a yearly basis.


The Swim-- 1500m-- worked on maintaining consistency, focused on trying to not go out to fast. Breathing pattern maintained 2-2-4 when swimming parallel to the shore, breathing every 3-5 strokes when going out and coming back to shore. Final time: 33:19 (Garmin) includes "run" to transition which I walked, and got passed by several people. 16 minutes faster than last year


T1- good, about the same as last year, easier to get off sleeveless wetsuit, I wore a full sleeve wetsuit last year and was probably a bit over-heated.


Bike-- 21.6 miles (Garmin) not quite 40K-- wore aero helmet for the first time. Focused on keeping constant cadence and not crashing. Kept wondering when one of my teammates was going to pass me, as she is quite good on the bike. Final time: 1:17:30 (Garmin) 16 minutes faster than last year. I've done more focused training here, including trainer workouts with Jim Lubinski at Triathlon Lab in Santa Monica.


T2- about the same as last year, more time to put on shoes, using five finger shoes. 


Run-- 10K-- I was actually able to run more this year, walked all but about 400 yards last year. This year set a goal to run one minute walk one minute, and this worked out well. Walked a bit more toward the end to time out so I could run into the finish. Was not surprised when I was passed by Chris Schauble as I was heading out for second lap, he was headed to the finish. I had a plan and was sticking to it and smashing my time from last year. It was during the run that both of my teammates passed me. Final time : 1:28:08 (Garmin) 24 minutes faster than last year.


Overall great race, knocked almost an hour off of my time from last year. The field was smaller and faster this year. It was great to be able to race with some people I know, had a great time, didn't even worry about Carmageddon.